


Bestowal

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [101]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas Party, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Gift Giving, M/M, Team as Family, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 03:43:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4731614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simply put, the gift-giving portion of the holiday party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bestowal

**Author's Note:**

> Part three, "Peppermint Candy."
> 
>  **Original Characters** : Mateo Cheng, Devi Avninder, Evelyn Winter, Rhys Averill, Ghaliya Kazdaghli, seen Isi Hill, Asra Amirmoez, Vanessa Quinones, Antoine Henriques, Noël Beringer, Amarie Cambridge, Mallory Cambridge.

“Next one is number ten,” Willa calls, pulling said number out of the snowman-emblazoned gift bag being used for the white elephant exchange.  “Who’s number ten?”

“Me!” Charlaine exclaims.  She grabs a tall, skinny bag despite all the adults’ heads shaking and pulls out a bottle of cake vodka.

“Sorry,” Sam says sheepishly.  “Should’ve thought it through before I brought liquor to a gift exchange with kids.”

“I’ll trade,” Nicole offers cheerfully, handing Charlaine the light-up necklace she unwrapped.

“Thanks!” Charlaine says, happily draping the plastic beads around her neck and offering the alcohol in turn.

“Last up is number seventeen,” Willa announces.

“That’s me,” Mateo says.  “The present, dear?”  Willa gamely tosses it over.

“So it’s nothing breakable,” he chuckles.  He slices the wrapping paper open with a fingernail and pulls out what appear to be a crocheted octopus.

Adilyn grins.  “You can name them whatever you want.  They aren’t totally sure of their gender yet.”

Mateo nods respectfully.  “Thank you for the heads-up, _maliit na ada_.”

Adilyn’s shoulders roll (objectively she can see Mateo is handsome, but mostly she just likes the praise of pet names) and she says, “Of course!”

“This is so precious,” Pam drawls.

“You’re a cynical ass,” Tara counters, turning in Pam’s lap to kiss her.

“Now!” Willa chirps.  “Real gifts.”  She reaches under the tree and pulls out a box.  “This one is from the Bellefleurs to Sam.”

Sam chuckles when he opens the box to find a flannel shirt with an envelope in the pocket.  “Thanks, girls,” he says very politely.

“Look in the envelope,” Braelyn says.

“That’s from our dad,” Danika adds.

Sam obliges and cracks up laughing.  “This certificate entitles the bearer to one new pool table,” he reads.  “Since the old one’s _been through something_ , I assume.”

The girls all nod eagerly, grinning.

“Practical _and_ an appropriate consideration,” Lafayette muses, sipping his beer and threading an arm around Isi's waist to pull him back into a snuggle.

“Fuckin’ heartwarming,” Pam adds.

“You’re such an ass,” Tara says.

Willa and Jessica grin at each other, because for all the snark, this feels like a proper family Christmas like they really wanted.

“Next one is from Jason to Jess,” Willa announces.  The room goes quiet, everyone either understanding the magnitude of the moment or not wanting to interrupt it with questions, until Jessica opens the box.

“Aw, thank you,” she hums, pulling a gold charm bracelet out.  The only charm thus far is a tiny gold clock, which Jason promptly explains.  “I know, uh, Nora’s got that necklace that’s a clock, I thought maybe you’d like kinda matching, since you guys’re… whatever.”

Jessica smiles shyly.  “That’s really cool, Jase.”

Eric takes her wrist and fastens the bracelet, smirking but somehow kindly, and Nora beams, adding, “It’s very sweet.”  Her tone implies _considering you once sat where I do now_.

Willa lets everyone tied to the moment smile it out before she takes the next gift.  “This one’s Sookie to Devi,” she announces, passing over an envelope.”

“It’s kinda uninspired, but I figure it’s open-ended, sorta,” Sookie says self-effacingly.

Devi withdraws a gift certificate for a spa weekend inscribed with a note.

_I’ll never be able to truly thank you for saving his life or for being such a good friend to us, but hopefully this is a start._

“Yeah,” Devi says, nodding at the note.  “I owe myself a treat yo’self weekend, all things considered.”  She smiles at Sookie.  “Thanks.”

“Next one’s from Nora to Mateo,” Willa chirps.

“Goody,” he says, reaching into the bag he’s handed and pulling out what looks to be a journal.

“Look inside,” Nora encourages.

“A guide to surviving Louisiana as a queer expatriate vampire,” he reads off the front page.

“I like to pass it on to newcomers,” Nora smirks.

“Are Southerners and the South really so hard to handle?” Evelyn asks playfully.

“Southerners are _baffling_ , honestly,” Rhys chimes in.  “You take some getting used to.  It’s not a fault, it’s just a fact.”

“We really sorta are,” Amber muses.

Most of the out-of-towners nod along and Ghaliya bats her eyelashes as she adds, “Being even one of those down here would be cause for a survival guide, but all three especially.”

“ _Xièxiè_ ,” Mateo says, cheerfully sardonic.

Gift after gift is passed out, some surprisingly sweet - Pam’s chest of not-too-sexy hand-me-down clothes, bequeathed mostly to Charlaine but with the addendum that she’s welcome to share with her sisters if she wants; an old coat of Godric’s that Eric had had tucked away in storage but wrapped up to give to his sister (everyone is polite enough to pretend they don’t see her crying as she buries her face in the fabric and seeks out whatever of Godric’s smell remains) - and some silly - Adilyn sought out a plush version of Luna the cat to pass along to Luna the person; Jessica presented Nora with a Blu-Ray copy of _The Little Mermaid_ , which nobody outside their triad understood the context for but they all found hilarious - and all gratefully received.  By midnight, all that’s left under the tree is a set of envelopes and a blue Tiffany bag that Willa’s been avoiding on purpose.

“These first,” she says, but before she can Santa out the envelopes, Sam and Luna jump up to take over, each grabbing half the stack.

Luna hands her envelopes to Sookie and Nicole, while Sam hands his to Jason and Lafayette.  “So we know some of you better than others,” Sam begins, “but we’re all kinda turning into a big family.”

“Even if we wouldn’t necessarily have chosen all of each other,” Luna interjects wryly, half-smiling at Nora.

“Well, as y’all know, Luna and I are gettin’ married,” Sam continues, “and we do want all of you there, no question, but - well, you guys open the envelopes.”

They do, all four of them, and Sookie about bursts into tears, grinning.  “Of _course_ I’ll be your bridesmaid,” she exclaims, jumping up to hug Luna and then stepping back to allow Nicole room to do the same.

“You sure you can handle havin’ a best man that’s gonna outshine you?” Lafayette teases Sam.

“I think I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sam says.

From the couch, Jason gives a thumbs-up.  “I’m, uh, I’m up for it,” he says.

“Thank you guys,” Luna murmurs.  “We’ll have a night wedding or something so everyone can come, it wouldn’t be right without, but -”

“You don’t need to explain it,” Tara assures.  “It makes sense you’re havin’ these guys.  Doesn’t mean we aren’t all still happy for you.”

This gives way to a good ten minutes of wedding-party buzz before Luna finally says, “Hey, there’s one more thing under the tree,” shifting the attention back.

“Yeah,” Willa says shyly.  “I mean, not to upstage your big news, but I kept thinkin’, well…”  She thrusts the box at Jessica, shaking her head.

Curiously, Jessica pulls the ribbon and tears the paper, and her jaw drops as she stares inside.

“What is it?” Amber asks.

Wordlessly, Jessica holds up the present: a gold-and-crystal tiara with some of the jewels arranged like flowers.  It isn’t the most expensive piece of jewelry, but it’s the thought.  “You actually got me a crown,” she whispers.

“Well, you’re the queen,” Willa says cheerfully.  “I don’t think you need to, like, wear it all the time, but I thought, y’know, it might be important to have?”

“Shall I set it on you?” Nora asks, low and warm.

“Did you know this was happening?” Jessica asks, to which Nora nods.  “It’s really, really sweet.”

“Come on, put on your damn crown already,” Pam calls, and it becomes clear she was in on the game too.  “We wanna see you decked out.”

Nora lifts the tiara and rests it on Jessica’s head, and Jessica dashes to hug Willa so hard she picks her up off the ground.  “Thank you,” she says.  “Not just for this.  For bein’ such a good friend t’me this year.  It means a lot.”  She turns to the others.  “An’ Tara, shit, we’ve had a couple weird moments but you’ve been so just… everything I needed.  An’ Nora, Eric, you guys… well, you know.  Pam, Sookie, Adilyn - hell, all of you.  I’ve lost two technical families, now, but it’s pretty clear I’ve got a great one anyway.”

**Author's Note:**

>  _maliit na ada_ ; "little fairy"  
>  _xièxiè_ ; "thank you"


End file.
